Are there any claims of pre-Islamic Persians paying any sort of homage to Angra Mainyu / Ahriman?

by Maklodes

For example, if a overly-powerful Persian noble was taken down by the shah, might his trial include trumped-up claims that he was an Angra Mainyu worshipper?

Might secret faternity or mafia-type organizations have had initiation rites involving some sort of homage to Angra Mainyu so that all members of the group had a sense of being bound together by their forbidden deeds?

Simple cases of everyday blasphemous invocations of Angra Mainyu? ("I'll never tell anyone your secret! Ahriman take my soul if I do!")

I'm wondering whether there are any records (or perhaps spurious claims) of that sort of thing happening.

(N.B.: repost)

republic_of_salo

Both in the Parsi scriptures the term of choice is "a follower of the lie" or a "drujvant". The lie (druj) is one of the daevas created by Angra Mainyu who is considered to lead the forces of evil in the final battle during the Zoroastrian apocalypse. Zarathustra himself (or: the authors of the earliest zoroastrian scriptures) used the term for raiders and for nomad peoples.

We also have inscriptions from the Achaemenid Empire which apply this term for the rebels crushed by Darius. Modern historians tend to stay in the old tradition which ascribes the "lie" part in the behistun inscription to the claim, sounded for instance by Herodotus, that Darius himself was an usurper. This is what you will find in the Persian Fire Book by Tom Holland.

Zoroastrianist authors such as Mary Boyce tend to cast expressions of this sort into a Zoroastrian context usually ignored by the historians.

To get an account of both views on any topic look it up in the Encyclopedia Iranica.

Behistun Inscription:

This (is) what I did; by the grace of Auramazda it was (done) in every way; after that I became king, I engaged in 19 battles; by the grace of Auramazda I waged them and I seized 9 kings; there was one, Gaumata by name, a Magian; he lied; thus he said; I am Bardiya the son of Cyrus; he made Persia rebellious; there (was) one, Atrina by name, a Susian; he lied; thus he said; I am king in Susiana; he made Susiana rebellious to me; there (was) one, Nidintu-Bel by name, a Babylonian; he lied; thus he said; I am Nebuchadrezzar the son of Nabu-na'id; he made Babylon rebellious; there (was) one, Martiya by name, a Persian; he lied; thus he said; I am Imanish, king in Susiana; he made Susiana rebellious; there (was) one Phraortes by name, a Mede; he lied; thus he said; I am Khshathrita, of the family of Cyaxares; he made Media rebellious; there (was) one Citra(n)takhma by name, in Sagartia; he lied; thus he said; I am king in Sagartia, of the family of Cyaxares; he made Sagartia rebellious; there (was) one Frada by name, a Margian; he lied; thus he said; I am king in Margiana; he made Margiana rebellious; there (was) one, Vahyazdata by name, a Persian; he lied; thus he said; I am Bardiya the son of Cyrus; he made Persia rebellious; there (was) one, Arakha by name, an Armenian; he lied; thus he said; I am Nebuchadrezzar the son of Nabu-na'id; he made Babylon rebellious.

These 9 kings I seized within these battles.

These (are) the provinces which became rebellious; the Lie made them rebellious so that these deceived the people; afterwards Auramazda gave them into my hand; as was my will so [I did] unto them.

...

Thou who shalt be king thereafter protect thyself vigorously from the lie. The man who shall be a follower of the lie, him do thou punish well.

Compare that to the Zoroastrian creed of faith included in the Yasna:

\4. I reject the authority of the Daevas, the wicked, no-good, lawless, evil-knowing, the most druj-like of beings, the foulest of beings, the most damaging of beings. I reject the Daevas and their comrades, I reject the demons (yatu) and their comrades; I reject any who harm beings. I reject them with my thoughts, words, and deeds. I reject them publicly. Even as I reject the head (authorities), so too do I reject the hostile followers of the druj.

It's worth a mention that "daevas" are the gods in hinduism and likely in the religion Zarathustra was rebelling against. A plenty of his views only make sense in a hinduist context. For instance: his ban on cremation. from the Greeks we have repeated claim that the Persians really didn't like lies. In Histories 1.136 Herodotus says that the three things every Persian is taught is "to ride, to use a bow and never to tell a lie".

Sources: Igor Rak - Zoroastrijskaja Mifologija; Tom Holland - Persian Fire.